This is vintage Foster. It’s the popular Canadian playwright at his best. He’s not afraid here to let us feel a little something — cry a little, even — for the sometimes-bewildering way life knocks us around.
By Gary Smith | Special to The Hamilton Spectator
September 3rd, 2025
I’m tired of all those theatre snobs who snub Norm Foster. They like to downgrade the work of Canada’s main funnyman.
Too bad.
When it comes to theatre, Foster is our kingpin of comedy. The guy knows how to make us laugh. After all, he’s written 74 plays. And yes, I know, they’re not all terrific. But plenty of them are, and they’ll tickle your funny bone while they warm the cockles of your heart.
Take “Here On The Flight Path,” the Foster comedy currently packing the Lighthouse Festival Theatre in Port Dover. It’s a real corker.
Just ask Foster himself, who says it’s his funniest play.
“I think there are more laugh lines in that play than anything I’ve produced before or since,” he says. When you consider the impact of other big Foster winners, like “The Melville Boys” and “The Foursome” that’s saying something.
“Here On The Flight Path,” is about relationships. It’s all about trying to connect. Three women are at a crossroads in their lives. There’s sweet and sassy Fay, a hooker who works out on her balcony. She’s lots of fun and catches the eye of John Cummings, her on-the-make next door neighbour.
Then there’s Angel, a bit of a goofus who fancies herself something of a Streisand-style singer and has Cummings in her eye line. Add down in the dumps Gwen. Divorced and bored, she’s looking for someone who’ll give her spirits a lift.
And guess what? In director Derek Ritschel’s compelling Lighthouse production, all three of these very different ladies are played by the same terrific actress.
That’s the way Foster wrote the play. And frankly, it’s the only way to do justice to this warm-hearted comedy. A lot of theatres don’t trust a trifecta performance, so they tend to cast three actresses to play the women who move in one at a time to the apartment next to John Cummings. And that robs the play of its real punch.
Certainly, Julia Dyan makes all three of Foster’s women believable, finding under Ritschel’s sometimes pushed, but always assured direction, a trio of characters who not only lean on the play’s comic surface, but find in its undertow an important, underlying heartbeat.
Foster told me he believes, “These women are at a crossroads in their lives and Cummings is the lovable loser on hand to help each of them through a crisis.”
This centres the play’s undercurrent of truth squarely on the relationship each of them has with friendly neighbour Cummings. Any actor tackling Foster’s male role must have a charming exterior, as well as the ability to engage us in an understanding of his own vulnerability.
Even when he’s acting like a know-it-all male, looking for the main chance, puffing out his chest like some randy rooster, this guy’s got to be to be likable.
Happily, Reid Janisse is just that sort of actor. He’s a guy with a lot of heart, even when he’s putting the make on his female neighbours. I guess you could call it chemistry. That’s what works in each of the encounters Cummings has with his vulnerable neighbours.
And it’s what gives Foster’s play something a lot more than a series of jokes and one-liners.
The play is set on adjoining apartment balconies, designed by Eric Bunnell. They look like a place where Angel, Gwen, Fay and John would actually live. There is nothing spectacular in these realistic outdoor spaces, but they have a lived-in look about them that is perfect.
As usual, designer Alex Amini provides costumes that cling to a play’s characters like a second skin. We just know, for instance, Angel would dress with a flair for kookiness that’s a signal of an obvious cry for attention. And we know too, that Fay would dress with a sexy sophisticated edge that announces she’s available, even if it is at a cost.
Because “Here On The Flight Path” is a play about male-female relationships it never avoids finding the funny side of sexual flirtation and expectation.
At the same time, it doesn’t ignore the undertow of truth that makes you care about its vulnerable characters, caught in a need for companionship, human longing and maybe even love.
This is vintage Foster. It’s the popular Canadian playwright at his best. He’s not afraid here to let us feel a little something — cry a little, even — for the sometimes-bewildering way life knocks us around.
When Foster is at his best, the worlds of comedy and drama ally nicely. That means theatre exists at the sweet spot, somewhere where we can sit in our seat and sigh contentedly.
This one is easily 10 out of 10.
Opinion articles are based on the author’s interpretations and judgments of facts, data and events. More details
Gary Smith has written about theatre and dance for The Hamilton Spectator, as well as a variety of international publications, for more than 40 years.
